Imam Al-Biruni

The Brotherhood of Religions and the Dignity of the Human Being

Abu Rayhan al-Biruni (362–444 AH / 973–1048 CE) was one of the most prominent scholars of the Ghaznavid state, which dominated the Abbasid Caliphate. He mastered seven languages and is regarded as one of the greatest intellects in human history. He is also credited as one of the earliest thinkers to explain the rotation of the Earth around its axis.

The most significant aspect of his intellectual legacy, however, lies in his attitude toward the religions of India. Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni commissioned him to travel to India and study its philosophy. After many years spent there learning Sanskrit, he wrote his observations in a seminal work titled “Tahqīq mā li’l-Hind min maqūla maqbūla fī al-‘aql aw mardhūla” (Research into What India Possesses, Whether Rational or Unacceptable).

What is remarkable is that he emphasized that the foundational belief among Indians is, in essence, monotheism. He observed that their educated classes recognize no creator or sustainer except God, and that the core of Indian philosophy tends toward belief in divine unity, while common people are associated with multiplicity, polytheism, and idol worship.

In a precise formulation, al-Biruni describes Hindu belief as follows:

“Their belief regarding God, Glorified be He, is that He is the One Eternal, without beginning or end, free in His will, all-powerful and wise, the sustainer and maintainer, singular in His dominion… He resembles nothing, and nothing resembles Him.”

From Sanskrit sources, al-Biruni astounded the scholarly world by revealing elements of monotheism within Hindu doctrine. He described a pure mystical understanding of the divine: God is pure, incorporeal, without form or image, absolutely One with no second. He cannot be seen or embodied, and whatever one conceives in the mind, God is other than it.

He further noted that Indian sages approach God with reverence and awe, calling Him Brahma, without assigning Him any physical form or representation. They say: we are too insignificant to address Him, and He is too exalted to attend to us. They hold that inability to comprehend God is itself a form of knowledge, and that investigating His essence is a form of associating partners with Him.

Again, al-Biruni writes:

“Their belief regarding God, Glorified be He, is that He is the One Eternal, without beginning or end, free in His will, all-powerful and wise, the sustainer and maintainer, singular in His dominion… He resembles nothing, and nothing resembles Him.”

He also cites passages from the Vedas and Upanishads describing the Supreme Being:

“He has no form.”

“He is pure and incorporeal.”

“Guide us to the straight path and forgive the sins that cause us to stray.”

“O friends, do not worship anyone but Him alone, the Holy One.”

“He is One, without a second.”

“He has no father or mother, and none is above Him.”

“He cannot be seen or embodied.”

Al-Biruni also reports from a text attributed to Patanjali:

“Even though He is hidden from the senses and cannot be perceived, the soul has comprehended Him, and the intellect has encompassed His attributes. This is sincere worship, and through perseverance in it, one attains happiness.”

Al-Biruni wrote with great respect about the Sabians of Harran, stating in his book Chronology of Ancient Nations that they are a people who affirm the oneness of God and transcend Him from imperfection, saying: He is not bounded, not seen, does not wrong, and does not act unjustly, and they refer to Him by His beautiful names in a metaphorical sense.

He also offered a nuanced interpretation of Christian doctrine regarding the Father and the Son, noting the influence of language in shaping theological expression, and interpreting “Father” as “Father of all.” His approach reflects an unusually fair and balanced engagement with religious discourse for his time.

In a similar manner, he wrote about Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, and Judaism, consistently presenting religious traditions with respect, highlighting their most noble aspects, and seeking to excuse their followers. His historical objectivity in describing religions was unprecedented in his era.

Al-Biruni held that all religions point toward God: “To God belongs the East and the West; wherever you turn, there is the Face of God.” He believed that religions originate from a single divine source, and that their followers should cooperate in eliminating poverty, begging, disease, and injustice. He also rejected missionary polemics that demean other faiths or distort their prophets.

He deliberately avoided engaging in argumentative discourse based on binary oppositions such as truth and falsehood, light and darkness, or guidance and misguidance, considering such rhetoric to belong to emotional polemics rather than objective scholarship.

He approached religions as divinely inspired phenomena, acknowledging the role of human development in shaping their expressions. He presented balanced portrayals of Manichaeism, Judaism, Hinduism, and other traditions—an intellectual fairness that many societies struggled to achieve even centuries after him.

When reading al-Biruni, one encounters a profound intellectual ethic: a nation among nations, not above nations; a prophet among prophets, not above prophets; and a religion among religions, not above religions.